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Eclipse
The Eclipse was the first Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer ever constructed and the lead ship and prototype of its class. It was built as a flagship for Emperor Palpatine, who used it after being reborn into one of his clone bodies. Both a powerful technological tool and a potent psychological weapon, the Eclipse boasted a planet's worth of weaponry and was almost unstoppable. The Eclipse was equipped with a bevy of weapons and other technologies, including gravity well projectors, but chief among its weapons was an axial superlaser, capable of cracking a planet's crust or destroying a capital ship in a single blow. For much of its existence, the Eclipse was under construction around the planet Kuat. Crime lord Tyber Zann captured the vessel from Imperial forces in 4 ABY to retrieve data from its memory banks, and abandoned it shortly thereafter. The ship was later moved to Byss, where the reborn Emperor Palpatine took control of it as his personal battlestation and flagship. Characteristics Offensive and Defensive Systems The most deadly weapon carried by Eclipse-class ships was a spinally-mounted superlaser that was almost as powerful as one of the component beams used in the Death Star's superlaser. This superlaser was the pinnacle of Imperial destruction in their fleets, and the most important development in the design of the Eclipse. It's main weapon, a concealed superlaser running along the spine of the ship. The Eclipse's single superlaser could fire at two-thirds the power of one of the Death Star's superlaser components, a feat made possible by advances in superlaser focusing and generator technology. The weapon was capable of destroying even the most powerful planetary shields and entire continents in an instant. It could also crack the crust of planets, render entire worlds uninhabitable, and rip enemy capital ships apart with a single shot. In offensive weaponry, the Eclipse was outfitted with 550 heavy laser cannons, 500 turbolasers, 75 ion cannons, and a superlaser mounted along the spine of the ship. the equivalent of a planet's worth of weaponry. The Eclipse was one of the most heavily-armed starships ever built, and was in fact capable of holding off an entire New Republic fleet by itself. Its fighting ability was unmatched. Other combat-oriented technologies included ten gravity well projectors, able to prevent enemy ships from entering hyperspace, 100 tractor beams, and an enhanced shield system. As a later addition, 150 Metal-Crystal Phase Shifters were added to the Eclipse's already impressive armament. In addition to its firepower, the Eclipse's armor and shields were so powerful that it could ram enemy ships without any risk of taking damage. Propulsion Systems The Eclipse-class was more mobile than the Death Star, being equipped with both an enhanced hyperdrive and fast sublight engines. Complement An Eclipse-class vessel carried 600 TIE Interceptors and 96 TIE Bombers, divided into 58 squadrons, it also carried a complement of Shadow Droid starfighters. The hangars were located at the sides of the vessel, with the fore and aft launch bays closely spaced underneath this area, towards the middle of the ship. Troop quarters were located on the lower frontal section of the vessel, in front of the hangar areas. Though the Eclipse was primarily designed for space combat, the vessel was geared for ground assaults as well. Every trooper stationed aboard the Eclipse, 150,000 in total, was specially selected. The soldiers on the vessel included a CompForce Assault Battalion, a newly created legion of Royal Guards, and a group of Imperial Sovereign Protectors as Palpatine's personal guard. Five prefabricated garrison bases and 100 All Terrain Armored Transports rounded out the Eclipse's ground assault forces. 708,470 crew were assigned to the vessel as well, including 4,175 gunners, though the ship could run with as few as 88,500 crew members. The Eclipse had a tonnage of 600,000 metric tons, consumables capable of lasting 10 years, and was entirely self-sufficient. Bridge Tower The ship's communications tower sat atop the bridge, its main communications array jutted from the tower's side, and the long-range communications system extended downward from the prow. The communications systems on the Eclipse were powerful enough to broadcast over all frequencies and drown out other signals. Palpatine had a private command console on the vessel that could be used to access his personal records. The bridge tower of the Eclipse was asymmetric, with the main sensor array on the other side of the bridge from the communications array, and the deflector shield command perched on top of the bridge tower. Role The Eclipse was equipped with the firepower of an entire planet, making it a powerful foe in standard ship-to-ship combat. But the vessel's heavy hull plating and strong shields also made it possible to use the ship as a ramming device against virtually anything, destroying enemies through sheer impact force. Though the Eclipse was a powerful warship in its own right, it was also designed as a psychological weapon. Its enormous size and black hull made for a powerful effect against enemies, and in battle it handily demoralized the opposing forces. The vessel's resemblance to ancient naval ships further enhanced its fearsome image. In addition to its use as a warship, the Eclipse also served for some time as an orbital space station above the Imperial capital of Byss. As well as being a constant symbol of Imperial dominance to the people of Byss, it was used as a meeting ground for officials in the Imperial Navy. History Early Construction The Eclipse was commissioned directly by Palpatine, designed to meet his exact specifications. The first of a new line of Super Star Destroyers and the most recent of the Empire's plethora of superweapons, the Eclipse was meant to serve as a symbol of Imperial power. The Empire began construction on the Eclipse around the time of the Battle of Yavin. During the early phases of construction, Palpatine visited the vessel several times. Crime lord Tyber Zann, leader of the Zann Consortium, first became aware of the Eclipse shortly after Yavin, while following up rumors of secret vaults of treasure belonging to Palpatine. Amidst the wreckage of the Death Star, Zann's crew retrieved data pods with details and construction schedules of the Eclipse, and believing that the records he sought were on the warship, Zann vowed to capture it. By a few months after Yavin, Zann had already begun sending out agents to investigate the Eclipse, an act that did not go unnoticed by the Empire. An armada of Imperial ships was assigned to guard the Eclipse at Kuat, and despite Zann's efforts to find a weakness in the Empire's blockade, it would be four years until he made his move. The crime lord discovered that the pass key to Palpatine's command console on the Eclipse was kept in a vault in the Imperial Archive on Coruscant, and even as Palpatine and Vader went to the Death Star II in preparation for the Battle of Endor, Zann launched his raid on the archives. He was successful, and it was not long before he seized his chance to take the Eclipse in the chaos that followed the Imperial loss at Endor. The ships that would normally be guarding the warship had to regroup upon their return from Endor, and so Zann took his forces to Kuat. The Rebel Alliance sent a force to the system as well. Zann claimed he wanted to destroy the Eclipse, and while the Alliance engaged the forces of the Empire, his fleet made their move towards the vessel. As a heated battle broke out between the Rebels and Empire, Zann's crew meanwhile took a boarding shuttle onto the Eclipse, wrested control of the warship, and brought the superlaser online. The Consortium turned the superlaser on the amassed fleets, and with their motives revealed, the Rebels turned on them. As the conflict progressed, an Imperial fleet commanded by the Executor-class Star Dreadnaught Annihilator entered from hyperspace to aid the thinning Imperial forces, after the Rebel Alliance navy had retreated. Unfortunately for the Consortium, the superlaser failed at this moment. However, Zann's boarding party aboard the Eclipse was soon able to reactivate the superlaser and destroy much of the Imperial fleet, after which the Consortium fleet mopped up the rest. Although Zann now had full control of the most powerful ship in the galaxy, after retrieving the pertinent data from Palpatine's records he abandoned the Eclipse for the Empire to retake. Zann knew the ship was too big of a target for the leading factions to ignore, and so left it to the Empire to complete its construction. After Endor The Eclipse was seen by many as emblematic of the problems with Palpatine's military policy. The Imperial naval planners did not approve of lavish spending on a single behemoth over several smaller ships of the line, seeing it as a self-aggrandizing waste, and after Palpatine's apparent death in the Battle of Endor it was felt that this kind of purchasing could no longer be justified. Some even suggested scrapping it and using the freed resources to build more Star Destroyers. But Palpatine was not actually dead. While the galaxy believed him to have been killed at Endor, the Emperor had escaped to a clone body on Byss, and under his orders construction on the Eclipse continued. Still, to many it seemed as if construction on the vessel would never end. The Eclipse was said to have taken as long to construct as either of the Empire's Death Stars. Over the course of the Eclipse's lengthy construction the builders incorporated decades' worth of the latest achievements in technology, including the gravity well projectors, enhanced ion cannons, and improvements to the sublight engines and hyperdrive. In 8.5 ABY, the half-completed Eclipse left Kuat for the Deep Core, used by the Kuat Drive Yards staff to evacuate as the planet fell to the New Republic. It became a permanent fixture in orbit around the world of Byss, where construction resumed, aided by slave labor, and was eventually completed. In this time it served as an orbital battlestation, where Grand Admirals and other high-ranking members of the Imperial navy met to plan Imperial strategy. A Rising Power Once completed, the Eclipse claimed victory after victory against its enemies. It soon became one of the most feared ships in the Galaxy and a symbol of Imperial might. The Eclipse has faced the most powerful ships in combat and emerged victorious. Category:Flagships Category:Star Dreadnoughts Category:Imperial Starships Category:Superweapons